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" Charges against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito for the murder of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher eight years ago have been dropped for the final time. It was heard on Friday in the Italian Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation)\u00A0that neither Knox or Italian-born Sollecito would face any further charges. The reasoning behind the decision will be made public in three months&amp;#039; time. The outcome is thought to be a rare one, following\u00A0an infrequent history of appealing defendants being handed acquittals. However, Amanda Knox&amp;#039;s secondary charge of slander against\u00A0Patrick Lumumba - an Italian bar owner she falsely accused of the murder - has been upheld. For that, she was ordered to serve three years in prison, which has\u00A0already been served. Knox, now aged 27, has long insisted her innocence in the killing,\u00A0and the recent verdict appears to confirm that.  Meredith Kercher was just 21 when she was murdered in the Italian town of Perugia, where she was spending a year studying. The student had suffered sexual assault, and was stabbed numerous times on the night of her death back in November\u00A02007. But the legal\u00A0case attempting to seek justice for Meredith and her family\u00A0has proven to be hugely complicated in the years following her brutal attack.\u00A0 Fellow student\u00A0Amanda Knox, who was also on exchange in Perugia from Seattle in the US and lived in a house with Meredith at the time of her death, was accused of the crime and\u00A0convicted\u00A0in December 2009, along with her boyfriend at the time, Rafaelle Sollecito.\u00A0 The pair served time for murder alongside Rudy Guede, who had also been convicted for his involvement in the crime in October 2008 after his bloody handprint was found at the scene. Guede is still in prison serving out his 16-year sentence, but both Knox and Sollecito were both\u00A0freed from prison in 2011 following an appeal case which overturned their convictions. Since then, Amanda Knox has returned to the US, but a new trial was ordered after officials felt that the\u00A0marks on Meredith&amp;#039;s body indicated that she had been killed by more than one person.\u00A0 That trial took\u00A0took place in January\u00A0last year, and re-instated the guilty verdict for Amanda and Rafaelle. It\u00A0sentenced them to 28 1/2 years and 25 years imprisonment respectively, with\u00A0Knox being dealt the longer sentence after courts found that she struck the fatal blow folllowing what is thought to have been a sex game gone wrong.  But the case was blown wide open when Sollectio changed his version events, which appears to create inconsistencies with Knox&amp;#039;s story. Where Rafaelle had previously claimed to have been with Amanda at his house\u00A0on the night of Meredith&amp;#039;s murder, his latest case insists that he &amp;#039;can&amp;#039;t remember&amp;#039; whether or not\u00A0she was there for the entirety of the night.\u00A0 This new twist appears to corroborate with CCTV\u00A0footage uncovered last year, allegedly\u00A0showing\u00A0Amanda Knox arrive home at the cottage she shared with Meredith, just two minutes before the victim herself returned. As well as potentially ruining Amanda&amp;#039;s alibi, Rafaelle had also requested that he be tried separately to his ex-girlfriend. The recent\u00A0verdict marks the fourth time this case has been heard in the Italian courts, and is the final time it will be heard in court. Knox, who remained in the US for the duration of the most recent trial, has said she is &amp;quot;full of joy&amp;quot; that the &amp;quot;nightmare&amp;quot;\u00A0is over.  Speaking outside her mother&amp;#039;s home in Seattle, Amanda\u00A0\u00A0said she was thankful for &amp;quot;for the justice I&amp;#039;ve received and for the support I&amp;#039;ve had from everyone. &amp;quot;Meredith was my friend,\u00A0she deserved so much in this life.&amp;quot; Although a positive result for Amanda and Rafaelle, we can only now feel for\u00A0Meredith&amp;#039;s family\u00A0 who are still without a clear idea of exactly what happened to her all those years ago. Although not in court for the final\u00A0decision on Friday, they are thought to be &amp;quot;shocked&amp;quot;. Follow Cat on Twitter. MORE ON THIS STORY: AMANDA KNOX FOUND GUILTY A SECOND TIME MEREDITH&amp;#039;S SIBLINGS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THEIR THOUGHTS ON AMANDA KNOX A SNEAK PEAK AT &amp;#039;FACE OF AN ANGEL&amp;#039; THE AMANDA KNOX-INSPIRED FILM "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a34402/amanda-knox-rafaelle-sollecito-murder-charge-meredith-kercher/>